“Rollin’… rollin’… rollin’ at the Airport.”
The Wayland girls varsity bowling team opened O-K Gold Conference dual match play Thursday and remained undefeated with a 26-4 victory over Middleville Thornapple Kellogg at Airport Lanes.
Coach Bill Holbrook said, “Although they won convincingly, the team had a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde afternoon.”
The Wayland boys’ team members virtually duplicated their Wednesday victory over Wyoming with a 26-4 triumph over visiting TK, also opening its league dual match campaign.
The Lady Wildcats came out firing their first Baker game with a spare and then five strikes in a row. They finished breaking their scoring record set the night before winning 224-105. The next Baker game included three splits, seven opens and a paltry 117, which resulted in their first Baker game loss of the season, 138-117, but they were up 6-4 going into the Team Individual games.
The next game was a very strong team game, shooting 819 to Thornapple Kellogg’s 562 and taking all nine points. Leading the way were sophomore Marissa Bruinsslot – 171, junior Alicia Sweeney – 208 and sophomore Sydney Urben – 192.’
Up 15-4 heading in to the last game, the Lady Wildcats started off slow with many splits and missed spares. They ended game two with a 723-525 win and the final 11 points. Senior Lizzy Cobb paced the team in the second gamewith a 168.
“They did show how much they have improved by fighting to the very end and salvaging everything they could,” Holbrook noted. “It was very good start to conference play. That being said, we need to continue to work on concentrating just as hard on spare shoots as we do strike shots. We are giving away too many easy conversions and sooner or later it will catch up to us.
“The resolve of this team to compete even when they struggle is a great sign of what they can do.”
Coach Sherry Miklusicak noted that Thursday’s boys’ contest was “nearly a repeat performance from the previous evening.”
The Wildcat guys started the day losing the first of two Baker games by only seven pins. Again, just like the night before, the Wildcats came out roaring after that and rolled a 196 the second Baker game.
Jesse Miling’s high game of the night at 213 led the fairly balanced attack by the ‘Cats. Michael Foley (183 and 177); Nick Couterier (188 and 175); Miling (186 and 213) and Cameron Heintzelman (211 and 199) turned in the top performances.
Both the “A” and “B” Wayland teams travel to Portage Friday, when the Lady Wildcats will attempt to defend their Huskie Invitational title from last year. Then they travel to Grand Rapids Saturday morning to compete in the Cedar Springs Invitational.